Verdict in students’ case reserved

LAHORE:The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved verdict on a habeas corpus petition against the alleged illegal detention of five persons including students as the police said the detainees had been discharged.

Haider Ali Butt, a student, filed the petition for the recovery of his fellows Zubair Siddiqui, Sanaullah, Ali Ashraf, Salman Sikandar and Haris Asad who were allegedly picked up by the police following a widespread protest against on-campus examination by some private universities.

On being summoned, the investigating officer appeared before Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and stated that the petition stood infructuous since the alleged detainees had been discharged of the cases. Advocate Usama Khawar Ghumman, on behalf of the petitioner, argued that the police officials involved in the illegal detention of the students should not be spared and needed to be punished under the law.

He referred to several judgments of the high court wherein the police officials had been punished and slapped with fine for keeping citizens in illegal detention. The counsel said the police personnel in civvies picked up the detainees from their residences without revealing the grounds of the arrest and shifted them to unknown places.

He said the police committed illegality as one of the detained students had been granted pre-arrest bail by a sessions court. He said the police to hide its malafide booked the student in another FIR lodged after the arrest.

When asked by the court, the investigating officer also failed to justify the timings of the arrest and the registration of the FIR. Justice Najafi expressed dismay over the investigating officer and reserved the verdict on the petition.

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate granted post-arrest bail to 36 students of University of Central Punjab (UCP) who were arrested by the police in a FIR got registered by the management of the institute on charges of attacking the security guards and vandalism.